Sunday, October 25, 2015

For the Bats III (Self-released VA compilation, 2015)

Released
just five short days ago, this compilation of various artists represents the
third and final instalment of the For the Bats project. It is a truly beautiful
idea – invite all the post punk, coldwave, trad goth, Batcave, deathrock, dark
cabaret and new wave bands you can rustle up to submit a track preferably not
recorded elsewhere, and release a not-for-profit compilation with all proceeds
going towards bat preservation, in this case, specifically to The Bat Conservation Trust.

There’s a whopping 25 tracks on here ranging from well-known acts like Paul Gilmartin’s Danse Society, Bloody Dead and Sexy (guest starring Gitane Demone), The Eden House (known for their connections with Fields of the Nephilim and NFD), and New Zealand band Disjecta Membra, probably best known to Australian readers for having the opening track “Cathedral” on the Dark Eyed and Starry They Were Volume 2 compilation (Heartland Records) way back in 1998.

Disjecta Membra

Less well recognised and up-and-coming bands are numerous
too, including The Daughters of Bristol, Sounds Like Winter, La Procesion de lo
Infinito, The Present Moment and many more I look forward to making further
acquaintance with their music.

The Present Moment

The musical styles represented here are diverse and, like
any large compilation of various artists, there’s going to be something here for
everyone to get into. The inner booklet is beautifully presented and makes it a
real shame that the beastie is available only as a digital download, but as the
masterminds behind the compilation rightfully observe, a physical offering
would cost substantially more, and given the nature of the project, they wish
to keep their environmental footprint as small as possible. You may
wish to purchase a copy because you love bats, or you may simply wish to hear a
whole horde of bands you may not have had the pleasure of hearing before. Regardless, For the Bats III can be yours for
the princely sum of $9 USD just by clicking on the link below. It is my
understanding that For the Bats Volumes I (2014) and II (2015) are also still
available.

1 comment:

Visited there last weekend with a group of friends, and had all the fun we could handle. I really like the ambiance at these venues. There's a decent draft beer selection at a reasonable price and the bartenders are good at what they do.

A Welcome and Introduction

Plunder the Tombs was started back in 2010 by way of looking back on a musical past that I felt in sore need of curation.

It was a strange and sad time when what passed for “Goth” in clubs seemed a pale imitator of what once was, following first a decade of cookie-cutter Sisters of the Nephilim clone bands and then another decade of industrial dance being palmed off to younger audiences as a type of faux goth. When on rare occasion DJs in “Goth” clubs did finally become brave enough to play something like Bauhaus it was not untypical to have the dance floor clear, and it became obvious that the memory, meaning and legacy of much that had gone before had been lost.

It’s probably safe to say that the boundaries of what was “Goth” were never clearly defined. An absolute blessing for those bands on the original scene before it had a name pinned to the donkey, but an outright curse for those who came later and found rules had been imposed to dictate that which was and that which was not acceptable. Worse still was to come in the 90s from a lazy and unquestioning media who simply assumed that anything that wore black and make up was by definition “Goth”, thus allowing all manner of pretenders licence, and maximising confusion as to what the term actually referred to.

This has gone on for way too long and its time is at an end. Neo Post-Punk bands now proliferate across Europe, old long dead Goth bands rise from their crypts in the UK, and new deathrock bands are breeding like rabbits up the west coast of America. It is time to reclaim our scene back from metal bands and ravers in disguise.

While the Plunder the Tombs of old focused on what had gone before, there are now far too many exciting new things to ignore. We roar back to life in a reboot, covering past , present and things yet to come.

Let us plunder the tombs….

About Me

A DJ throughout the 90s at numerous Goth night clubs in Perth including The Cell, Dominion and others he was probably far too drunk to remember, largely as a result of his preference to work for bar tabs over cash. Also helped found 6RTR fm's Goth & Industrial showcase Darkwings.
More recent projects include the currently dormant Descent - a small night dedicated to playing genuinely good Goth music both old and new in preference to packing the dance floor with songs everyone had heard 20 million times before. He currently runs a monthly show on Behind the Mirror on 6RTR fm which can be heard on Wednesdays at 11pm WST.
Rumour has it he once masterminded an ill-advised Goth fanzine "Small Pleasures" that in retrospect, he remains profoundly grateful never made it off his desk.